MOVIE
REVIEWS
The
Sorcerer's Apprentice
By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- By the time viewers sit through the two flashbacks --
one set in the Middle Ages, the other a mere 10 years ago -- that are
required to get The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Disney) rolling, they will
likely have a sense that director Jon Turteltaub's generally inoffensive
but routine fantasy adventure is on track to do more lumbering than levitating.
And so, alas, it turns out, as the special effects-driven proceedings
that follow fall well short of movie magic.
The second of the film's prologues introduces us to seemingly ordinary
New York City school kid Dave Stutler (Jake Cherry). When Dave accidentally
crosses paths with mysterious merchant Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage)
-- owner of a store called the Arcana Cabana -- our diminutive hero gets
caught up on the back story that was explained for us in the opening scene;
to wit, Balthazar is, in fact, a wizard and a former pupil of the legendary
medieval wonderworker Merlin.
For centuries Balthazar has been searching for the prophesied heir to
his old mentor's powers while also keeping Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina)
-- another of Merlin's proteges who went over to the dark side -- safely
cooped up in a Russian-style nesting doll. Dave, it need hardly be said,
turns out to be the "prime Merlinian" Balthazar has been seeking.
Flash-forward to the present to find that Dave (now played by Jay Baruchel)
has grown into a 20-year-old New York University student and physics geek
who is convinced that his boyhood encounter with Balthazar was simply
a hallucination. His unremarkable daily affairs are interrupted, however,
when the newly freed Maxim comes calling, followed in short order by Balthazar.
Once Dave accepts his destiny, most of the remaining screen time is consumed
by his efforts, under Balthazar's tutelage, to master the powers he has
inherited -- bring on the computer-generated "plasma bolts"
-- a task from which he's constantly distracted by his love for comely
fellow NYUer Becky Barnes (Teresa Palmer), whom he started pursuing, as
we witnessed early on, during their time together in the fifth grade.
While happily free of vulgar language, the script -- credited to three
screenwriters (Matt Lopez, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard) working from a
story with as many authors (Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal and Lopez)
-- has the feel of an adventure by committee.
But, besides unbloody battle scenes too intense for tots and a passing
invitation from a college friend of Dave's to join him in a drinking spree,
the only material that might give pause to some parents is a bit of potty
humour, as when we encounter a bulldog with gastric difficulties or follow
Dave into a men's room where he expresses audible relief while using a
urinal.
Like the rest of the magical rigmarole on display, the ability to raise
old comrades from the dead, attributed to Merlin's nemesis, Morgana (Alice
Krige), need not be taken seriously, nor need the inclusion of a Franciscan
friar in the ranks of these deceased practitioners of the black arts necessarily
elevate Catholic hackles.
The latter detail merely permits the camera to survey a group of unburied
skeletons such as can be seen in the Capuchin crypt of Rome's Church of
the Immaculate Conception, a long-standing -- albeit somewhat macabre
-- tourist attraction.
The film contains extensive stylized violence and brief scatological humour.
The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents.
The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance
suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
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Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service. More reviews are
available online at www.usccb.org/movies.
Despicable Me
By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Though he aspires to be the world's most terrible villain,
Gru (voice of Steve Carell) -- the character at the heart of Despicable
Me (Universal), an enchanting 3-D animated comedy -- is, in reality, only
a slightly wicked rogue who ultimately proves to be a softhearted hero.
With an East European accent somewhat reminiscent of Boris Badenov, the
comic heavy of the 1960s television cartoon The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,
Gru occupies the kind of darkly gothic house the Munsters of roughly the
same TV era might have comfortably called home.
In between his usually inept larger schemes -- such as attempts to steal
world landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower -- Gru engages in such petty
misdeeds as using a "freeze ray" to immobilize a line of fellow
customers so he won't have to wait behind them for service.
Challenged by an upstart rival -- a nerdy newcomer among evildoers who
calls himself Vector (voice of Jason Segel) -- Gru embarks on a project
he hopes will establish his credentials as the planet's supreme baddie
once and for all. With the help of mad scientist Dr. Nefario (voice of
Russell Brand) and an army of comically mumbling undersized minions (think
Twinkies come to life and sporting goggles), Gru plots to steal the moon
out of the sky, no less.
As part of this nefarious plan, Gru winds up taking three young orphans
under his wing: Margo (voice of Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (voice of Dana
Gaier) and Agnes (voice of Elsie Fisher). Predictably -- though nonetheless
enjoyably -- his temporary adoption of this trio of cuties has a life-altering
effect on the would-be tough guy.
In their feature debut, co-directors Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin --
who also provide voice work for those irrepressible minions (along with
Jemaine Clement) -- serve up a delightfully humorous conversion tale spun
around themes of loyalty and the transformative power of family love.
Timely satire is included in the form of Mr. Perkins (voice of Will Arnett),
the bloated, ruthless CEO of the straightforwardly named "Bank of
Evil," while Julie Andrews provides the voice of Gru's perpetually
grumpy, eternally unimpressed mother.
Though the gentle proceedings -- ably designed to appeal to both children
and their seniors -- unroll without the inclusion of any genuinely troublesome
material, a few effects that might scare the most timid and a touch of
mild bathroom humour may raise concerns with some parents.
The Catholic News Service classification is A-I -- general patronage.
The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance
suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
Predators
By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Toward the end of Predators (Fox), a character camouflages
himself by covering his torso with mud. That's an apt symbol for this
dreary sci-fi sequel which, despite a halfhearted last-reel lesson about
the need to maintain civilized values, is mostly a bespattered survey
of nasty ways to die.
As for Alex Litvak's script, it's chockablock with obscenities throughout,
and even the second-to-last word of dialogue is an unprintable one.
Director Nimrod Antal's addition to the thriller franchise that began
with 1987's Predator pits a random collection of human warriors and criminals
against the invisibility-cloaked aliens of the title, who are out to hunt
hominids for sport. The extraterrestrials' chosen hunting ground is a
steamy jungle into which each of the earthlings has been unwillingly,
and mysteriously, parachuted.
Along with their eventual leader, experienced mercenary Royce (Adrien
Brody), this unsavory gang includes -- but is not limited to -- Israeli
Defense Forces sniper Isabelle (Alice Braga), serial killer Stans (Walton
Goggins), drug-gang enforcer Cuchillo (Danny Trejo) and Russian Special
Forces operative Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov). (Given the premise, you can
tell Nikolai has been up to no good in Chechnya even before he mentions
it.)
A seemingly incongruous addition to their company is respectable and mild-mannered
physician Edwin (Topher Grace).
As this motley crew dodges deadly booby traps, alien warthogs and the
daggerlike appendages their pursuers are capable of sprouting at all the
wrong moments, they cross paths with Noland (Laurence Fishburne), a slightly
addled veteran of the aliens' cat-and-mouse ordeal.
But this encounter turns out to be just a detour in their bloody quest
for survival, which sees the group gradually whittled down by impalings,
eviscerations and other unpleasant spectacles.
The film contains frequent graphic violence, some of it gruesome, a few
uses of profanity and pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic
News Service classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture
Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying
parent or adult guardian.
The Last Airbender
By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The Last Airbender (Paramount) is writer-director M.
Night Shyamalan's live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon cable TV channel's
animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is refreshingly free of
objectionable language or behaviour -- and therefore endorsable for all
but easily frightened small fry.
But aesthetically this 3-D fantasy adventure turns out to be so strained
that the best advice for young and old alike is to avoid it altogether.
As Shyamalan's script spends far too much time explaining, The Last Airbender
is set in an alternate world where some human beings have the power to
"bend" -- that is, control -- one of the basic elements of fire,
earth, air and water. Exhibit A in this regard is teen Katara (Nicola
Peltz), an aspiring "waterbender" whose amateurish practice
of her craft sometimes ends up dousing her brother and main companion,
Sokka (Jackson Rathbone).
When Katara and Sokka stumble across a sleeping child trapped under the
ice of their Arctic homeland, the boy, who goes by the name Aang (Noah
Ringer), turns out to be the latest incarnation of the Avatar, a global
peace-giver with the potential to master all four elements and thereby
restore order to society.
However, since the warlike, imperialist Fire Nation -- people are divided
into tribes specializing in the command of a particular element -- has
embarked on a so-far-unsuccessful bid for world domination, its ruler,
Fire Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis), and leading general, Commander Zhao (Aasif
Mandvi), are anxious to capture the Avatar before he can foment rebellion
against their oppressive rule.
Also in pursuit of Aang is Ozai's disgraced and banished son, Prince Zuko
(Dev Patel), who hopes to regain his father's favour by capturing the
boy wonder. Though angry and bitter, Zuko occasionally benefits from the
prudent advice of his Uncle Iroh (Shaun Toub), who has followed him into
exile.
Along with endless exposition of these various characters' abilities and
motivations, the film also bogs down in stilted dialogue, failing to gain
dramatic traction or engage viewers' interest.
So the fact that the script presents Aang as a reincarnated being, much
like the dalai lama of Tibetan Buddhism (whose mode of dress the lad's
costume resembles) and portrays a couple of glowing fish as the "spirits,"
respectively, of the moon and of water, is -- like the rest of the movie's
exhausting details -- best ignored.
The film contains potentially confusing religious themes and much non-graphic
martial arts and combat violence. The Catholic News Service classification
is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America
rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. The Motion Picture Association
of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material
may not be suitable for children.
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The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Though it sticks to a tried-and-true recipe that will
undoubtedly delight the legions of enthusiastic followers who have made
the franchise it extends a box-office blockbuster, The Twilight Saga:
Eclipse (Summit) may strike less-committed viewers as occasionally over-familiar.
On the plus side, director David Slade's third installment in the hugely
popular Gothic romance series -- based on the best-selling novels of Stephenie
Meyer -- draws, like its predecessors, on self-referential humour to leaven
its potentially ridiculous proceedings. And, while Melissa Rosenberg's
script ramps up the mostly bloodless battling among its supernatural characters,
it also shifts the basis of its main couple's chaste interaction from
a matter of constraint to one of choice.
Said couple is, of course, composed of well-behaved vampire Edward Cullen
(Robert Pattinson) -- who preserves the appearance of a high-schooler,
despite being more than 100 years old -- and teen mortal Bella Swan (Kristen
Stewart). Their romance, typified by an early scene in which Bella reads
poetry to Edward amid the blooming flowers of an idyllic rural glade,
is currently complicated by a number of factors, some old and some new.
As in the previous episode of their story, 2009's The Twilight Saga: New
Moon, Bella is determined, despite Edward's many objections, to become
a vampire herself to remain with him permanently. Equally opposed to this
change is Bella's friend, and would-be love interest, Jacob Black (Taylor
Lautner). Despite being a werewolf -- what's a girl to do? -- Jacob offers
Bella the prospect of a somewhat normal life.
Edward and Jacob's antipathy is more than personal, since, according to
Meyer's mythos, vampires and werewolves are long-standing instinctual
enemies. But with Bella's life threatened by villainous bloodsucker Victoria
(Bryce Dallas Howard) -- out for revenge against Edward for the death
of her own true love, James, and busy assembling an army of plasma-hungry
minions to advance her schemes -- the rivals must unite to protect the
object of their conflicting affections.
The climactic battle includes scenes of wounding and mutilation. However,
since vampires are shown to be made of ice on the inside, there is only
a bit of bloodletting among the human characters.
Though Bella is anxious to consummate her love for Edward, their brief,
fully clothed bedroom encounter terminates in his refusal to do more than
kiss and caress her. But while his restraint was previously motivated
by the fear that passion might drive him to put his fangs into Bella,
Edward now takes a stand on principle, resolving to uphold Bella's virtue
until the two are married.
When Edward acknowledges that such values-driven behavior isn't "modern,"
Bella perhaps says more than she knows when she responds, "Not modern;
it's ancient!"
The film contains considerable stylized violence, an off-screen rape,
a scene of non-graphic sensuality, a birth control reference and a few
mildly crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II --
adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating
is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate
for children under 13.
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops
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